dance

The Meadows Dance Ensemble in SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts presents its 2016 Spring Dance Concert March 31-April 3 in the Bob Hope Theatre, Owen Arts Center. The ensemble will perform one world premiere and two enchanting ballets, creating an awe-inspiring evening for the audience.

The concert’s highlights will include the world premiere of a newly envisioned version of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (1945), choreographed by Claudia Lavista and Victor Manuel Ruiz, artistic directors of the acclaimed Delfos Danza Contemporanea in Mazatlán, Mexico.

The program also showcases the Martha Graham masterpiece Appalachian Spring (1944), set to Aaron Copland‘s original score. The ensemble will also perform Tchaikovsky’s Pas de Deux by George Balanchine, an eight-minute display of ballet bravura and technique set to music the composer belatedly created for Act III of Swan Lake.

Meadows dancers will present encores of Firebird Suite and AppalachianSpring, accompanied by the Meadows Symphony Orchestra,at the Meadows at the Winspear annual gala concert on May 11.

Performances will take place at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are $7 for students, faculty and staff and can be purchased online. For more information, call 214-768-2787 (214-SMU-ARTS).

The 2015 Fall Dance Concert will feature a world premiere, a masterwork and a revival.

Opening the program is the premiere of Wild and Precious, a contemporary ballet by Robert Dekkers. Created especially for the SMU Dance Ensemble, Wild and Precious is a celebration of both youthful energy and the evanescence of life. Performing choreography that is supremely physical and challenging, the dancers embody the dynamic spirit of “the body electric.”

The program continues with There Is a Time, a masterpiece of modern dance created in 1956 by José Limón and composer Norman Dello Joio, who earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1957 for the score. The work alludes to a chapter of Ecclesiastes and each movement of the work is titled with a biblical verse and embodies the human experience.

The New York’s Joyce Theater invited the SMU dancers to perform There Is a Time at the 70th anniversary celebration of the Limón Dance Company, which honors José Limón’s legacy, in October. The Meadows School of the Arts is one of only nine university dance programs internationally selected to perform.

Concluding the Fall Dance Concert is a restaging of the jazz work Swing Concerto by jazz dance artist and SMU faculty member Danny Buraczeski. The work synthesizes the grounded qualities of folk dance with the exuberance of the swing-era movement.

Fall Dance Concert performance times are 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in the Bob Hope Theatre, Owen Arts Center. Tickets are $13 for adults, $10 for seniors and $7 for SMU students, faculty and staff. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 214-768-2787 or visit the Meadows website.

Fourteen SMU dancers, all first-year students, will perform with the Dallas Chamber Symphony during a very special presentation of director Fritz Lang’s 1927 dystopian masterpiece, Metropolis.

During a screening of the 82-minute silent film classic, the students will provide an interactive dance performance choreographed by Associate Professor Christopher Dolder, with a new score by Austin-based film composer Brian Satterwhite performed live by the Dallas Chamber Symphony. The event is part of opening-night festivities for the 2015 Dallas VideoFest and begins Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 8 p.m. at Dallas City Performance Hall, 2520 Flora Street, in downtown Dallas.

Often named as the first science fiction epic in film history, Metropolis is especially vivid in its portrayal of the disruptive effects of technological innovation and the social and economic stratifications it creates, as well as of civil liberties issues such as free speech, privacy and surveillance.

“Metropolis is one of the great achievements of the silent era, a work so audacious in its vision and so angry in its message that it is, if anything, more powerful today than when it was made,” wrote the late Roger Ebert in a 1985 review.

“Audiences have always been able to relate to these themes as new advances create new groups of haves and have-nots,” Dolder says. “Even today, 90 years later, they remain fresh and relevant.”

The film’s camera work, design and special effects are still haunting and evocative, and the staging of both crowd scenes and lead actors is “strikingly balletic [in] the repetitive synchronism of the working poor, as well as [its] portrayals of dance and artificial intelligence,” as noted in a Dallas Chamber Symphony release.

These elements and more make Metropolis fertile ground for a multidisciplinary collaboration between high art and high tech, Dolder says. “The trick for us will be to create a cohesive experience, where the new score and the dance element serve and enhance the film without distracting,” he adds.

The film’s otherworldly atmosphere is enhanced not only by the music, set and dancers, but also by the strategic projection of video elements from the film, isolated onto the dancers and set, Dolder says. He created and painted the intricate series of risers on which his students will perform – and made a point not to ask for their help, he adds.

“When we started this project, I told them I was going to treat them as professional dancers helping to create a new work,” he says. “In return, I expected them to prepare and conduct themselves in the same way.”

The approach has worked, Dolder says. “These first-year students may be the best class of dancers we’ve had – and we’ve consistently attracted talented, intelligent classes,” he says.

“Each year, we try and accomplish something new, and more daring,” says Richard McKay, the DSC’s artistic director and conductor. “It is our ensemble’s adventurous culture that has motivated [us] to start the season with Metropolis – by far, the most complex and expansive production we have ever created.”

Individual tickets are available for $19-$55 each, $15 for students. VIP tickets can be purchased for $75, which will include a pre-event cocktail reception backstage with the artists, starting at 7 p.m. An after party will be hosted by Proof + Pantry, across the street from the theater, with complimentary appetizers for all patrons who would like to meet the composer and performers. Get tickets and more information online at DCSymphony.org, or call 214-449-1294.

The Train to Crystal City: FDR’s Secret Prisoner Exchange Program: Jan Jarboe Russell will recount the dramatic and never-before-told story of a secret FDR-approved American internment camp in Texas during World War II, where thousands of families — many of them U.S. citizens — were incarcerated. The event will take place from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015 in McCord Auditorium, 306 Dallas Hall. A light reception will precede the event beginning at 5:30 pm, with the lecture starting at 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. For more information and event registration click here.

Dine and Dance with SMU’s Brown Bag Series: Throughout the week of Oct. 5, 2015, the Meadows School of the Arts Division of Dance will present lunchtime performances of 10-15 original, student-choreographed ballet, modern and jazz works. The performances will be held in the Bob Hope Theatre Lobby in SMU’s Owen Arts Center and are free and open to the public. Click here for a list of daily performance times.

Set your Watch for Go Set a Watchman Discussion: Dedman College Dean Thomas DiPiero, a renowned To Kill a Mockingbird scholar, will discuss author Harper Lee’s controversial Go Set a Watchman on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015 in Hughes-Trigg Student Center Ballroom, SMU Campus. The 6 p.m. lecture will be preceded by a reception at 5:30 p.m. The event is presented by the SMUSA Book Club and Friends of the SMU Libraries. RSVP by Oct. 5, 2015 here.

Learn how to negotiate anything: Join Kelly Trager, an adjunct professor and lawyer, in a three-part workshop that will change the way you negotiate in your daily life. Workshops will be held from 12:30 p.m. to 1:50 p.m Thursday Oct. 8, Thursday Oct. 15 and Thursday Oct. 22, 2015. The workshops will be located in the Embrey Engineering Building room 129, SMU and are free and open to the public. Reserve a seat here.

Demanding or Deferring? The Economic Value of Communication with Attitude: Daniel Houser, George Mason University, will present his recent research on the effects of natural language communication versus fixed-structure communication on individual behavior on Friday, Oct. 9, 2015 at 2 p.m in Umphrey Lee Center Room 303. This event is apart of the Economics Seminar Series and is presented by Dedman College.

This year’s concert features two world premieres by noted guest choreographers, as well as the revival of an acclaimed work by jazz dance artist and faculty member Danny Buraczeski.

The program opens with the premiere of Darkside by Artist-in-Residence John Selya. Based on the Tom Stoppard BBC radio play with music from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album, Selya’s Darkside brings a visual element to what has been a solely auditory work. In addition to teaching and choreographing at universities and dance companies across the nation, Selya is a Tony-nominated dancer and Broadway veteran.

The second performance features faculty member Danny Buraczeski‘s in the revival of his acclaimed 1999 piece Ezekiel’s Wheel. Inspired by the life and work of author and civil rights activist James Baldwin, Ezekiel’s Wheel is set to a percussive musical score interspersed with passages of Baldwin’s writings.

The program concludes with the premiere of The Hi Betty Cha-Cha by alumnus and founder and director of Dark Circles Contemporary Dance,Joshua Peugh (’06). Featuring five contrasting sections, the work is set to music by Dean Martin, as well as Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.

Performance take place at 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. Available for purchase online, tickets are $7 for SMU faculty, students and staff. For more information, contact the Meadows Ticket Office.

SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts is transporting its art and music into the community as part of a new “Meadows Community Series,” which will present five events in diverse venues throughout Dallas over the fall and spring semesters.

The new series is part of Meadows’ ongoing initiative to engage the community with art, music, theatre, dance and more. Sam Holland, professor and director of the Division of Music at Meadows, says the series is about more than showcasing talented Meadows performers in new city locales; it’s also about inviting the audience members to have an aesthetic experience.

“People don’t come to concerts to learn something, or to be edified, or to be in the presence of greatness,” says Holland. “They come to feel something, to be moved by something greater than themselves. That is what the aesthetic experience is, and that is what we want to provide.”

Three of the events are ticketed, and two are free. Ticket prices range from $7-$13 and may be purchased at the door or online in advance at Vendini.com. For more information contact the Meadows Ticket Office, 214-768-2787 (214-SMU-ARTS).

Holiday high notes: The Meadows Opera Theatre presents an Opera Free For All “On the Eve of Christmas,” featuring scenes set on Christmas Eve from Massenet’s Werther and Act II of Puccini’s La Bohème. The brown-bag concert begins at 1 p.m. Dec. 4 in the Bob Hope Theatre lobby, Owen Arts Center. Free and open to the public. For more information, call the Division of Music at 214-768-1951.

Musical rites: Meadows faculty members Emanuel Borok, violin, and Andrés Díaz, cello, will join the Meadows Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Brahms’ Double Concerto. The orchestra’s final program of 2009 will open with Dvorak’s Amid Nature overture and conclude with Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. The concert takes place at 8 p.m. Dec. 4 and 3 p.m. Dec. 6 in Caruth Auditorium, Owen Arts Center. Tickets are $7 each for SMU faculty, staff and students. For more information, contact the Meadows Ticket Office, 214-768-2787 (214-SMU-ARTS).

Sharp moves: Meadows School of the Arts presents The Sharp Show, an annual showcase of outstanding works choreographed and produced by seniors in the Division of Dance. The concert takes place at 8 p.m. Dec. 5 and 7 p.m. Dec. 6 in the Sharp Studio, Room B100, Owen Arts Center. Free and open to the public. For more information, call the Division of Dance at 214-768-2718.

Lunch with Friends: George W. Bush Presidential Library Director Alan C. Lowe will present the program at the Friends of the SMU Libraries/Colophon annual holiday luncheon, beginning at 11:30 a.m. Dec. 8 at the Royal Oaks Country Club, 7915 Greenville Avenue. The cost is $35 for Friends members, $50 for non-members. Valet parking provided. RSVP by Dec. 3 to Cynthia Ruppi, 214-768-3225.